Absentee Votes Could Be Disqualified : W. Hollywood Group’s Ballot Requests Flawed

Absentee voters who have applied for ballots in West Hollywood’s City Council election next month could be disqualified if they have used flawed applications provided by a political coalition of moderate businessmen.

City officials said this week that absentee-ballot applications sent out last Friday by the West Hollywood for Good Government group contained several flaws that could disqualify those ballots for the April 8 election.

West Hollywood City Atty. Michael Jenkins said the city is taking steps to correct the flaws, but officials of the Good Government group, which is backing three candidates in the race, worry that the confusion over the ballots could cost them crucial votes.

Good Government Co-Chairman

“We hope this has been resolved,” said Peter Freed, a co-chairman of the Good Government group. “It shouldn’t have turned out this way.”

The Good Government group emerged several months ago as a new political entity in West Hollywood, championing West Hollywood’s business community and urging a City Council that would be more responsive to its needs.

Good Government has backed three candidates in the upcoming election--incumbent Stephen Schulte and challengers Ruth Williams and Tom Larkin--and is vying for the council’s attention with the Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenant activist group that is backing Mayor John Heilman and Councilwoman Helen Albert.

Schulte, Heilman and Albert are the only incumbents facing election in April; other challengers are Jeff Cole, Stephen D. Michael, Alan Mulquinn, Ron Stone and Mark Werksman.

Clerk Noticed Flaws

According to City Atty. Jenkins, the problem with Good Government’s absentee ballot applications became apparent Monday, when several applications were received at the city clerk’s office. City Clerk Mary Tyson noticed several flaws in the applications and reported them to other city officials.

Jenkins said that in one major flaw, the applications urge potential absentee voters to report the address where they are registered to vote. State law requires that absentee voters report the address where they live.

“There are plenty of situations I can imagine where voters may well be living at different locations than where they have been registered to vote,” Jenkins said. “Those people could be improperly registered to vote and never know it.”

Also, according to Jenkins, the Good Government application did not contain an essential paragraph that informs absentee voters how they can become permanent absentee voters. “That paragraph became a standard requirement under state law last year,” Jenkins said.

Considered Discounting Ballots

Freed said that city officials had at first considered discounting any of their ballots, which in turn angered Good Government leaders. But Jenkins said the City Clerk will correct the errors by sending warning notices to any absentee voters who used the Good Government application. The warnings, which will accompany absentee ballots, will advise the voters that they have to report their current addresses and not their registered addresses.

If they do not comply, Jenkins said, “we will have to disqualify their votes. We don’t want to disenfranchise any Good Government voters. But the City Clerk is just following the rules. Her actions are proper and supportable.”

The applications had been mailed out last Friday by the Good Government group as part of its campaign to increase its share of the vote. Freed said the group’s governing board expects low voter turnout in the April election because there are no major state or national elections on the ballot.

Looked at a Sample

Freed said that he and other Good Government officials had looked at a sample of the absentee ballot application before it was sent out and did not notice any mistakes. “We thought we had taken it directly from the city’s version,” he said.

Freed, complaining that Jenkins “took a narrow interpretation of the law,” wondered aloud how ballot applications mailed out by the organization on Friday could have been sent into the city so quickly. “It makes you wonder whether somebody might have brought them in on purpose to cause us problems,” he said.

But city spokeswoman Helen Goss said that all six absentee ballot applications received this week had been filled out by voters and sent back. “I guess they were just eager to get them in,” she said.